


Lucky stars

by Spitfire_the_wounded



Series: Blessing From The Void [this is so soft what the fuck] [2]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: I swear it, Maternal Instincts, No This Will Never Be In Order, Pre-Canon, another introspection type thing?, but not like, dead children, eh, i will get you as invested in him as i am, posssibly, the abyss - Freeform, the pale king feeling things, the pale king ruins his own plan by feeling things, the pale king we want, wyrm headcannons, yeah this gets extreme, youll know what i mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 19:53:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21003260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spitfire_the_wounded/pseuds/Spitfire_the_wounded
Summary: “They say that, somewhere, in every patch of starweed lies a lucky star, hiding away from nosy little bugs to keep all the luck to itself. Any bug who can find a lucky star will have a bit of its luck go to them as long as that star remains un-picked, and any bug who picks a lucky star is said to have all of the luck it makes to themselves until it wilts.”“Just one. A single one. I just need one child to be pure, one child to seal her away. Then perhaps all of this would finally come to an end. perhaps finally i can find some peace.”In which the pale king unknowingly makes a prayer to a higher being he doesn't know exists, and sacrifices everything for a solution he doesn't know he’s gotten.(//Might// become a multi chapter, I'm really feeling this one)





	Lucky stars

The abyss was an unkind place, as cold and unfeeling as the void it held. The pale king did not feel well leaving his brood there, the thought made a horrible anxiety buzz under his shell, it made his stomach feel like upturning and his lugs smaller than usual. The fact that he had actually done it filled him with horror and dread so palpable that he found himself waking up in the night with the strong urge to venture down into the abyss and check on the vessels himself.

This was  _ not  _ under  _ any  _ circumstances a good place for eggs, apparently much more so than he had realized.

Careful, steady clacking echoed off the walls as the wyrm made his rounds through the incubation halls, his many feet casting a cacophony of tips and taps that were quickly consumed by the overwhelming silence around him; it didn't do very much to calm his rising nerves. 

The first door was in sight, he couldn't hear any of the normal peeping and chirping that newly hatched grubs were supposed to make. Dread filled him to the brim, and he found himself hesitating at the door.

_ He could do this.  _ He told himself. _ You just need some of them to survive. Whatever happens to the rest doesn't matter. There is no cost too great to ensure Hollownest’s continuance, no price too high to pay. _ He told himself as he hesitantly pushed the door open.

He had lied.

The chamber was dead silent, as still as the abyss it was contained in. there was no peeping, no chirping, no movement to speak of because there were no living beings in the chamber to make such things.

Little bodies were scattered about the room, limp and lifeless and bubbling with a horrid, awful looking slew that smelled vaguely of sulfur. They were hanging out of partially cracked eggs, laying on the floor, leaning on the walls; It looks like some of them hadn't even made it out of their shell, little white masks floating in the same bubbling tar that painted the floor, drip,  _ drip,  _ ** _dripping_ ** **-**

He closed the door. 

He wanted to scream, to cry, to call off the experiment right then and there. To go back up, seal the abyss, to curl up in a corner and sob until it all turned to ash and his physical form lie decaying in the pale light of his palace. To let his essence, his memories, his light, his everything decay and wither until there was nothing left.

They… his… they were…

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and steadied himself. 

No. he had to check the rest. He couldn't think like that, couldn't just abandon everything like that.

His kingdom was depending on him, he had to see this through.

He gathered himself up and continued down the hall, checking each room and yielding much of the same results. Thousands of eggs, all broken and dripping with a horrid slew. Dead. all of them. 

All of his-

No cost too great.

He stopped at the final room and steadied his breath once more. Seeing all of them, all of this death, all of his grubs, hadn't gotten easier. Each time he opened a door he felt a piece of himself wither off and die, felt some of himself fade away, felt the urge to crumble and wither and die. he could never get used to such things, he could only brace himself.

And brace himself he did. His hopes for a survivor had been dashed by the 80th clutch, but one must be thorough in these manners. 

At first glance, it looked just the same as the others. 30 eggs, cracked and dripping. 20 eggs cold and still. Tiny bodies bubbling lifelessly on the floor, shards of little busted open masks crunching gruesomely under his...

No cost too great

He turned to leave, once the check was complete. To cut off this experiment and find any other possible way, to possibly never come back to this place for the memories that would eat him, but a little body blocked the way. A  _ standing  _ little body with arms and legs and a whole, undamaged mask. 

_ It had its mother’s face.  _

The figure continued to silently stare as his shaking minutely increased. His heart swelled with a sticky, achy feeling that made his vision blur with tears as he quickly rushed over to cradle the figure close to himself. He couldn't help but murmur sweetly into its mask as he quickly made his way up and out of the abys, some deep maternal instinct guiding him away from the place that so many of his own had died in.

During all of this, the little vessel hadn't responded, just stared up at him with those tiny vacant eyes. They were small, so small.

His.

**Author's Note:**

> headcanon time: wyrms are mostly known for their tendency to steal kingdoms from other higher beings, but they are notorious for their overwhelming maternal instincts. wyrms care fiercely for their brood, ensuring that they all prosper and survive to adulthood, even at their own expense! they have also been known to adopt younger bugs of other types into their nests when raising their own, or on rarer occasion take in said bugs regardless of whether or not they have pre-existing brood.
> 
> perhaps this is where they get their kingdom concurring tendencies?


End file.
